In my Oblivion Remastered playthroughs, Speed is my favored attribute. I currently play a female Nord Barbarian, and it is an incredibly interesting way to play the game.
Rather playing a lumbering knight or warrior, as a barbarian you focus on quick movement towards to victory over your opponents. The importance is on quick hits that have a concentration on damage over a slow battle. Speed tends to get not as much attention in the Elder Scrolls games. However, in Oblivion they are well worth your time and make the gameplay have more frantic and fluid pacing which helps to ease players with the somewhat clunky combat systems in the game.
The Imperial City is one of my favorite places in Oblivion. When the Remastered Oblivion was released in April, I went straight into the city, trying to see what had been changed by the people renovating the game. I was happy to see that the Imperial City got a much needed change in its style and I was taking screenshots everywhere I was walking in the metropolis of the Septim Empire.
There was another aspect of the city that I enjoyed from the original game. This was the sewers of the Imperial City, which Bethesda had put so much effort into. In comparison to most games, Bethesda seems to remember that cities have infrastructure and have an inner life beneath their streets.
While the Imperial City Sewers may seem like a boring place, I think it makes a big impression on me. That Bethesda would spend their time putting effort into the Imperial City sewers, and give it a sense of verticality and not just make them into linear areas, is a great way of giving more depth into the Imperial City as a character.
When one thinks about cities in Video games, they tend to revolving more around the player and do not seem like livable places. However, in Bethesda’s games, they have managed to build cities that seem inviting to the player without revolving around them.
The sewers are a city onto themselves and that is saying something about the design of the Imperial City. When one enters through the gates of the sewers, one is treated to underground world where sewage and all various creatures and bandits are coexisting with one another in the bowels of the empire.
Some people say that the game starting in a sewer hurts the game; I actually say that it improves the moment when you exit the sewers and see the Elven ruins in front of you. It shows great contrasts in the colors and the mood there. You go from a place of confinement into a place filled with the possibility of adventure. It that feeeling which makes us want to explore the world and not follow the main quest.
Bethesda is really great at getting us to care about such environments and Oblivion Remastered could give us a taste of what’s to come with The Elder Scrolls VI.
This is what was missing in a game such as Skyrim. The cities in that game were simply too small and I felt like even the big cities were lacking an inner nature. The sewers of the Imperial City seem to imply a history beyond the player. There is infrastructure which keeps cities running and Bethesda manages to simulate it.
The sewers beckon to the player like an underground realm of Hades. It is remarkable how the developers made such an effort at bringing to life a place that people do not go to. It is important to understand how the nooks and cranies aspect of Bethesda’s games is what makes them special as role playing games.
Their environments is their strength. When I go into any Bethesda game, I notice how they tell great stories through the cities and environments in those games.
Oblivion Remastered gave me what I wanted to have in a game. I did not want a linear experience that was on rails. I want a living, breathing world full of possiblities.
Bethesda knows how to scratch that itch that no other developer can. That is why the Elder Scrolls series is a truly special among gamers.
With the success of Oblivion Remastered, it is clear that there is renewed interest in the Elder Scrolls VI. I think that the game is going to be taking place in High Rock or Hammerfell, more likely the latter as we haven’t really seen as much in the series. However, I think that the renewed interest in The Elder Scrolls Oblivion with the remastered edition is a sign of how Bethesda wants to gin up interest in the sequel to Skyrim. The snow peaks of Skyrim have were more popular than the Lord of the Rings inspired Oblivion for many years after release. However, the remastered shows that the Elder Scrolls series has greater appeal beyond the snowy homeland of the Nords. Oblivion Remastered success indicates that Elder Scrolls VI will be a better game and here is why that the hype is real for the sequel game.
1. Elder Scrolls VI will probably have better horses
The Paint Horse you see in this screenshot above shows the huge leaps in graphics from the 2006 version. The horses in the original game always seemed a little muddy in the textures. In the Elder Scrolls VI, they are probably going to have better horses not only in graphics but in the way that they are used in the game. Probably there will be calvary warfare. With some players saying that the game could take place in Hammerfell, I expect that that the game may feature camels as a mount avaliable to players.
2. The Graphics will probably look similar if not better than Oblivion Remastered Edition.
I think that the graphical upgrade of Oblivion Remastered is one of the best aspects of the game. Beauty is only skin deep, but it is capable of telling a story at the same time in the game.
Oblivion Remastered has made what I love about Oblivion even better. I think that Skyrim was always too snowy for me. Unlike Oblivion, Skyrim has this feeling of being a game that should be played in the winter for best effect. Even the music in the caves seems to have this lingering chill of the winter within the musical notation. This is something that is not present in Oblivion. The graphics in the original game were more diverse and more dreamy in character.
The Elder Scrolls VI is probably going to be as demanding as Oblivion was in 2006. With GTA 6 now having a second trailer, it seems that Elder Scrolls VI is going to have competition. While I do not expect that Elder Scrolls VI is going to have the graphical quality of Rockstar’s latest open world game, but I do expect that it will be using Oblivion Remastered as a base for what they want the sequel to look like so that it can compete with other AAA games.
3. We may see a new Arena system in Elder Scrolls VI
While Skyrim did not have an Arena system, I think that it may return in Elder Scrolls VI.
The Arena was always one of my favorite parts of Oblivion. Unlike the Companions in Skyrim, this questline was very useful in the early game for getting more gold to use in shops. The story also fit in the game world unlike Skyrim’s hastily put together questline for the Companions.
4. Spell Making
One of the best new features in Oblivion was the usage of spell makers at the Arcane University in the game. I think that having this feature in the game again will help to put some more variety back into the Elder Scrolls Series. Skyrim was too streamlined for some fans even if it was a great success. With the series having been incredibly succesful for them, they can probably take more risks with putting back in some complexity into the Elder Scrolls. The success of Oblivion Remastered is a clear sign that there is still an appetite for some greater complexity in games. This complexity has to be balanced of course. People want games that respect their time and are not just time sinks like in the past. Being an AAA developer means having to respect many audiences.
5. Bigger Cities
One of my biggest compliants with Skyrim was how the cities were so small. Whiterun was deceptively big and the castle took up too much space. Some of the cities in the game were way too small. It is time we have some larger cities in the Elder Scrolls franchise. Oblivion showed that it is possible to have big cities in a game within the confines of that console generation.
What I would like to see is more cities and also more alive cities. While I love the size of cities in Oblivion. They need to be more alive and have more characters in them. That would be a great treat and make for better role-playing experiences.
6. More varieties in the Art Style
One of the biggest changes to the Imperial City was these rooftops with the wooden shingles on them. They allow the city to become more sophisticated in comparison to the previous version of the game. This is why I loved Oblivion when I first started playing it. Unlike Skyrim, there is a greater variety of styles in the game. Each region has its own architectural style. Bruma has the art style of the Nords with their Viking Inspired houses. The city of Bravil has rustic looking shacks that seem more at home in Skyrim in some sense here. The city of Anvil is remind me of Ancient Rome with their roofs and masonry on the walls; the coastal city is remarkably attractive and looks quite different from say Skingrad or Chorrol. Such variety is what makes Oblivion in my view a better game than Skyrim in the architecture of cities in the game.
A more colorful Elder Scrolls
This picture shows how beautiful the Elder Scrolls games can be. One of the issues that I had with Skyrim was how gray and brown it was. The introduction with Helgen is rather lacking in color. There is little contrast in the colors like when one goes out of the sewer in Oblivion.
What Elder Scrolls VI needs is more colors. Skyrim was a great for shaking up the color palette in the series but I think it is time to go back to something has more beauty in it.
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